My Senior Experience
“If I could describe my experience at UC in one word, it would be opportunistic.” This sentence, which came directly from my sophomore year executive board application to Forever Bearcats, truly epitomizes my college experience. Looking back at this application now as president of the organization, I can truly say that college has been a place of opportunity for me. I have been able to grow tremendously by taking advantage of various relevant resources and prospects available to me. As a senior, one of my goals has been to grow as a leader in terms of managing and interacting with others. I think this stemmed from my impactful co-op experience at JPMorgan Chase & Co., in which I sought to network with and learn from as many people as possible during my 10-week rotation. I took every chance I could to get coffee with managers, new hires, and directors with jobs ranging from the machine learning space to financial data modeling in order to learn how they got to where they are now. Not only did I get a better idea of the field in data science I am interested in (machine learning and predictive modeling/forecasting with data), but I also began to recognize the values of being a leader, working with others, and becoming a self-starter. To become a successful leader, not only do you need to have expertise in your subject matter, but you also need to understand how to obtain the best from others and how to initiate and build impact through them. Therefore, along with applying for a master’s degree in Data Science to continue advancing my technical skillset, my senior year goal has been to push myself into positions of leadership at UC.
Forever Bearcats is an undergraduate organization that raises scholarship and special project money for non-revenue sports at UC, which encompasses every sport besides football and men’s basketball. What a lot of people do not know is that non-revenue scholarships are paid entirely by fundraising efforts (they do not come from the NCAA, and the university has to pay for whatever scholarships that fundraising does not cover). I have always been passionate about UC athletics, so this has been an amazing opportunity for me to give back to my alma mater as a student. I have been part of Forever Bearcats’ executive board since sophomore year, but I never really had held a role where I was people-facing before my senior year. In most of my executive board experiences actually, I tended to be the person that got their work done well but was quieter and only spoke up if necessary. Rather opportunistically for me, Forever Bearcats as an organization began to unravel at the end of my junior year. The executive board was not transitioned at all and was on the brink of extinction. I could have let the organization perish and focus on my other interests, but I saw the chance to re-brand the organization as well as put myself into a position of increased leadership.
It has been very exciting to guide the organization’s molds and changes throughout this year. My executive goal is to offer more benefits to general members in order to make Forever Bearcats more than just a fundraising and donation-focused organization for them. This has involved reaching out to a number of prominent student groups on campus for partnerships, countless meetings within the athletic department, and myriads of meetings with my executive board. I believe that I have grown immensely by being an ambassador for athletics of sorts as an undergraduate student, and better understand how to work with others who have different mindsets, goals, and schedules than my own. Similarly, in my other involvements on campus, I feel myself gravitating towards leadership roles more often. For example, when I participated in 84.51’s annual case competition at UC, I quickly found myself leading my team in terms of building data visualizations and figuring out the best way to infuse our varied strengths so to present the most impactful analyses. Our team placed second in the competition, and I was very proud of myself for naturally wanting to be a team leader.
As I embark on my full-time job at JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as part-time graduate school starting in the fall of 2021 at Northwestern University for Data Science, I am confident that my enhanced leadership skills will serve me well in the business world and classroom. I know that I will need to continue working hard, networking with colleagues and perfecting my technical knowledge, but I am excited for the challenges and growth opportunities ahead of me. UHP allowed me to imagine myself as a global scholar and leader, not only as a student but also as a person and offered me countless occasions to get myself there. I am thankful for everyone who helped me along the way and those who will continue to help me accomplish my goals in the future.
